Chatter box like parser

[rodry]

Hello. I am trying to write a simple parser like the one used in the chatter box. You know, when you type in those special tags to reference a node or to reference a user.

I am having all kinds of trouble trying to write such an application. So, if the monks that run this site would be kind enough to post the regular expressions used to parse those custom chatterbox codes, I would appreciate it :) Thanks in advance.

[neophyte]

You might want to check out one of the template modules on CPAN.
eg: HTML::Template
or: Text::Template a review of this is available here
or: Template::Toolkit
You might also look at the parsing module HTML-Parser if this suits you needs better.
Those might help you more than a single regex. All these modules have been discussed on Perlmonks, so doing a Super Search should give you lots more of information.

neophyte

[merlyn]

The square-bracketish things used in the Everything code are not HTML-ish parsable though.

It's probably best to go grab the Everything tarball and just steal the technology from there. Isn't that what open source is about? {grin}

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

[tilly]

And, of course, you want to validate the HTML, keep people from slipping in images, etc, etc, etc.

For a good start, see Why I like functional programming.